From Cabe to Babe
by Bowyer38
Summary: Walter needs to find ways to bravely express himself to Paige. Cabe helps Paige with target practice at a gun range.


"So, Walter, ahem..to summarize what you told me today, this woman...Paige--you're in love with her, yes?"

"Yes." Walter responded.

"And her son, Ralph...he sees you as a positive male role model? Almost like a father-figure--in lieu of his biological father?"

"Well...yes...I suppose so, however..." Walter's confidence began to slump. Dr. Rizzuto raised his hand abruptly to make a point.

"Did you notice what just happened?" Dr. Rizzuto stood up and began pacing back and forth in his office. Walter looked around and tried to postulate a theory.

"You..asked me a question...I..began to answer said question..and then..you...for some unknown reason interrupted my answer before I could fully--"

"WRONG!" Dr. Rizzuto's large open hand slammed down onto his desk. "What just HAPPENED was that YOU stopped believing. He grasped at a finger with each item mentioned. "You stopped believing in--ME, you stopped believing in--YOURSELF, you stopped believing in 'MAKING Waige' A REALITY--that little stammer--that little hesitation--YOU KNOW you would be an excellent father to Ralph...YOU KNOW in your heart that he sees you as 'his father-figure.' " Walter put his head down sensing the doctor was no longer pleased with him. "No...no...what have I told you about shutting down?"

Walter mumbled back by rote the mantra. "Shutting down is for computers and robots...I am a human being...I cannot shut down."

"Very good. Now...I am seeing that our time is almost up, but I do want to give you a homework assignment for this week...something to try to boost that EQ confidence and bring us one step closer to making Waige." Walter listened closely with his head up. "Paige, from what you told me, is nervous about this new role she will be taking on--and Miss Brooks a.k.a. Tweety replacing her in some regards might throw her vulnerable psyche for a bit of a loop..so..Walter..do this for me..in the spirit of our sessions--for Waige--for eventual spiritual awakening with all things EQ and LQ, I want you to be extra attentive to Paige's emotional wants and needs this week--give her romantic nicknames, compliment her on her manner of dress and appearance...be tender and kind--sprinkle niceness in when you have extra time or the moment seems right. Do you think you can do that?"

Walter was extremely nervous about the assignment. Dr. Rizzuto glared at him to help him realize he should answer confidently to prove a point.

"Yes, sir. I can do that this week!" Walter over-compensating startled them both.

"Well, good...I shall see you next week then--and I expect to hear good things--confident, Waige-type-things!!" As Walter marched out of the office, he could hear Dr. Rizzuto asking his secretary to please send in Mr. Spiewack next.

"Where have you been, son? Ralph and Sly were worried you were off on one of your Dudes of Honor errands and got lost in downtown traffic or something." Cabe welcomed Walter to the gun range where Paige stood with noise-canceling headphones on over her perfectly coiffed hair. Her pressed outfit was tight-fitting and the noticeable effect of the sizable recoil from her testing weapon forced Walter to purse his lips and breathe uncomfortably with every bullet fired. The way stray strands of bangs dangled over her ear made Walter gulp as he attempted a smile. She was shooting at a target a great distance away. With Cabe's experience in the Marines, and having earned marksmanship awards in the past, it seemed like a good idea to have him teach her everything she would need to know in the event of a real firefight. Allie, also wearing large headphones, approached the group as Walter reached for the headphones around his own neck. She carried a plain stainless steel lunchbox by its jiggling handle. It had appeared that Cabe in his excitement to get to the range, had mistakenly forgotten his lunch. Having the headphones on now, Walter was reduced to using sight as his main sensory perception. The way Allie lovingly approached Cabe--tenderly touched his hand, and released the lunchbox into his awaiting grasp--seen with only the faint sound of Paige continuing to practice shooting gave Walter pause. This kind of romantic gesture and kind interaction was precisely what Dr. Rizzuto had been wanting from him. He had to study them more to gain more usable data.

"Hi, Allie." Walter spoke at a normal volume.

"WHAT??!" Allie's long skirt got snagged on a nearby fence post.

"Here, let me help you, babe." Cabe bent down and gently released her so as not to damage her new outfit.

"Thanks, babe. I guess I would have worn jeans or something if I had known you guys would be all the way out here in the boonies." Allie smiled adoringly and Cabe removed his sunglasses and headphones as he stood upright.

"It's my fault, Little Lady...If I hadn't forgotten my lunch..." Cabe was attempting his best John Wayne impression. Allie giggled with excitement as though it were spot on.

"Oh, stop! Anyway, I have to go..."

"Do you? I miss you when you're not around..."

"Baby, I'll see you tonight...it's only...6 hours from now...I think you can handle it." Allie was flirting aggressively now. Walter began to think he should no longer be there observing. As she walked away slowly, Cabe just stared like a pockmarked teenager developing his first crush.

Wanting to seem like his usual tough-guy self in front of Walter, he cleared his throat and reapplied his standard-issue blublockers. The paper target ziplined toward Paige for retrieval and Cabe's expert critique of her aim. As she grunted and struggled to rip it from the line to hand to him, part of her hair fell out of its typical flawless formation and a brown barrette pinning her updo fell to the ground. Walter, sensing a Waige-y opportunity, picked it up for her, and bravely tried to copy Cabe's mannerisms from earlier.

"Here you go..er..uh..babe...I really thought your shooting was...quite...on the mark." It was painful to watch as Walter attempted to flirt with a slow wink. Paige removed her protective goggles and looked over at Cabe who put up his hands as if to say Walter's new-found EQ was none of his doing.

"Thanks, Walter." Paige, without need of a mirror, restored her updo with the precision of a professional assassin assembling a rooftop sniper-rifle. "Back in my diner-days, you didn't have time to not look and be your best--she who hesitated...well..you weren't LOST per se, but...you didn't get that table's 15% tip--that's for sure." The eye contact was palpable.

Cabe looked over Paige's target practice sheet. "I'm impressed, kid--you're a hell of a good shot for this being your first time."

Paige thanked Cabe for his remarks and shook her head up and down trying to feel as excited as he did. "You really think so? Because I have a feeling if that target were able to fire back, it might be a different story."

Walter was somehow able to perceive Paige's nervousness and empathize with her desire to improve.

"Paige...uh..do you mind if we walk for a moment?" Surprised by Walter's spontaneity, she waved goodbye to Cabe as they walked down the winding dirt trail back toward their vehicles.

"So...Walter...what's up?"

Walter scrambled to remember all of the various exercises Dr. Rizzuto had painstakingly drilled with him concerning a moment like this. He thought about Cabe, and Allie, and Ralph, and all the other variables involved in making Waige. However the footsteps between they and their awaiting vehicles grew louder and more distracting. Paige sensed Walter's anxiety and put his bandaged hand in hers.

"I am a human being...I cannot shut down." Walter whispered under his breath for a confidence boost. Walter put his hands behind her head and crossed his wrists around her neck lovingly.

Trembling with excitement, Paige could barely get out breathless words. "Walter? What..are you doing?" Looking longingly into each other's eyes, Walter inhaled sharply.

"Something I should have done long ago...Babe, I'm making Waige!"

The next several minutes of passionate kissing and intoxicating sensuality were the stuff of Paige's literal spine-tingling dreams from when she and Walter had just met. Her hands combed through his hair. His weight firmly pressed on her frame. Out of breath, and shivering from what had just happened, Walter reached out for her hand. "I'm really proud of your new role for the team, babe. And you and I--like this...things have never been so..clearly defined and unstoppable. The car's just over this ridge--are you coming?"

Paige, trying to remember how to walk properly again, exhaled slowly and redid her updo once more with lightning speed and a new confident enthusiasm--grinning from ear to ear. "Yeah. I'm coming, BABE."


End file.
